This is not a drill: the Game of Thrones prequel now has a name.
George RR Martin has finally revealed that the mysterious spin-off series, which has been in the works for years, will be called The Long Night and stars Oscar nominee, Naomi Watts.
‘Casting is now underway for THE LONG NIGHT, the first of the GAME OF THRONES successor series to ordered to film,’ he tweeted.
On his blog, he added: ‘I could not be more excited. Welcome to Westeros, Naomi.’
Just as Game of Thrones reaches its conclusion next year, we won’t have long before we’re back in Westeros for the story set thousands of years before Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister and Ned Stark were ruling Seven Kingdoms.
The Long Night will follow the first time Westeros was plagued by a never-ending darkness, lifted from the tale of the Age of Heroes, which writer Jane Goldman (of Kick-Ass and Kingsman fame) has warned is ‘not the story we think we know’.
Though, fans of the fantasy epic think they’ve already worked out where the show will be set after a casting call appeared to leak online.
As it stands, we know next to nothing about The Long Night as HBO and Martin have carefully managed to avoid spilling any huge details until now.
But wiring on his blog earlier this year, Martin explained: ‘Yes, this is a prequel, not a sequel.
‘This one really puts the PRE in prequel, since it is set not ninety years before Game of Thrones (like Dunk & Egg), or a few hundred years, but rather ten thousand years (well, assuming the oral histories of the First Men are accurate, but there are maesters at the Citadel who insist it has only been half that long).
‘We’re very early in the process, of course, with the pilot order just in, so we don’t have a director yet, or a cast, or a location, or even a title.’
Game of Thrones returns to HBO and Sky Atlantic in 2019.
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